O’Brien begins with “This is true,” but throughout the story
we find that it is possible that none of it is true. None of the technical
details of Curt Lemon’s death anyway, because what happened and what seemed to
happen and how the memory of the event changes through time will always change
the details of a story, but never the real important parts. In the end, O’Brien
admits that the story wasn’t the point at all. The story of Curt Lemon’s death
was just filler between the important parts: like Rat’s reaction to receiving
no letter in reply to his, and the way “a deep pinkish red spilled out on the
river, which moved without sound” before Mitchell Sanders had to cross the
river, making a right occasion for story telling, and how he played with his
yo-yo while telling it.
The trueness of a war story depends not on its
“happeningness,” or on it’s moral. Heck, O’Brien says that true war stories
aren’t even about war. They’re about what happens in between and after war.
They’re about waking up 20 years later with a memory that won’t leave your
head. And they’re about that dumb (but well meaning) old lady who wasn’t even
listening to the story at all.
In this short piece by Tim O'Brian, our author uses his own personal experiences from his time in the Vietnam war to discuss war as a whole. His writing is not linear but always returns to the story of his fellow soldier Kurt Lemmon stepping on a mine and dying and the subsequent letter his friend Rat writes to Lemmon's sister. Rat writes a heartfelt letter and is angry when he gets no response. This reminds me of PTSD. Rat and his troop experienced something visceral and emotional and he tries to tell a civilian about it but she doesn't respond. Someone with PTSD has experiences from the trauma they experienced that someone else can't conceive. It is just as Tim O'Brian says, its not about the actual story but the meaning and the time in between. O'Brian brings up a story he was told about men laying in the jungle on a recon mission. He knows that the story is a lie or at the least embellished but its still a true war story. Its not the details that matter as much as the emotion it evokes in the listeners mind. War is terrible and the people that live through it come away with scars unseen, like Rat who is grieving his friends death and is driven to anger that his friends sister doesn't reply to him. O'Brian says that his account of Lemmon dying is just that, his account. He suggests that to Lemmon it was light killing him and that everyones angle of sight was different. This reminds me of PTSD because what he is saying is that everyone adjusted to the situation differently and it is printed in O'Brian's mind in a specific way.
ReplyDeleteO'Brien says that the true stories in war are likely to be the most unbelievable, while the parts that seem most convincing are fabricated. The fact that O'Brien begins How To Tell A True War Story by stating that it is true and then admits when parts of it are fictional demonstrates that he can be an unreliable narrator. However, as as veteran, and an author who has dedicated the novel to the same people who appear in this story, the reader must find some truth in it. Some of the details of Curt Lemon's death may have been confused, however we cannot say for certain that none of it is true.
ReplyDeleteRat’s reaction could have been what a lot of soldiers felt like when they wrote home and received no letter in return. The isolation and misery that they felt due to the nature of war was only made worse by the fact that no one home can understand what Rat is going through. The facts of the story about Rat may have never happened however, the reader is able to get a glimpse into the life of a solider.
ReplyDeleteI like how you mention that the death of Lemon was just filler. I think this is why O'Brien mentions his death with more details as the story progresses. That while Lemon died the important thing was the letter he wrote, or the pain he felt and taking it all out on the water buffalo. The story was about love and loss the detail of how Rat lost his best friend are inconsequential what matters is that he did and how he reacted to it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris. I realized in class today that any story could have replaced the Curt Lemon story and it still would have conveyed the same truth. The truth being that war events change in a soldiers memory. And whether or not the event really happened that way, it is still truth to the rememberer.
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